Washington Terrain Ratings

It's the little things that kill—Bush

DISCLAIMER
TRAVELING IN AVALANCHE TERRAIN MAY RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH. THESE TERRAIN RATINGS DO NOT CONSIDER CRITICAL FACTORS RELATED TO AVALANCHE FORMATION SUCH AS CURRENT WEATHER OR THE STRUCTURE OR MECHANICAL STABILITY OF THE SNOWPACK. NONE OF THE TERRAIN RATED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS COMPLETELY SAFE FROM AVALANCHES. THESE TERRAIN RATINGS DO NOT CONTAIN ANY INFORMATION ON CURRENT INSTABILITY NOR ANY FORECAST OF FUTURE INSTABILITY. YOU BEAR FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONSEQUENCES THAT MAY ARISE FROM YOUR CHOICES.

Terrain Ratings
( AUTHOR'S NOTE: This post was originally written four years ago, but it has been one of my most popular posts, and I thought that it deserved to be featured again. )Most people are familiar with the idea of terrain ratings, but if you are not familiar with the ATES technical model, review the following video:



Introduction
This document contains terrain ratings for ski trips in Washington State. These terrain ratings provide an overall picture of the avalanche exposure for the terrain listed. The author's interpretation of ATES parameters are as follows:

• The ATES rating system considers avalanche exposure. Other hazards exist.
• The amount of exposure increases by at least 1 order of magnitude for each rating level.
• Exposure to avalanche terrain does not increase in a linear manner.
• Exposure for a simple tour might be viewed as a value of 4.
• Exposure for a challenging tour is 16.
• Exposure for a complex tour is 64.
• In addition many tours have elements of each classification but these ratings are constructed with the entire tour, including the return, in mind.
• Tours rated challenging are not conservative choices when the danger rating is considerable or higher.
• Combine these ratings with the current avalanche danger and your personal risk acceptance level.

Simple
Exposure to low angle or primarily forested terrain. Some forest openings may involve the runout zones of infrequent avalanches. Many options to reduce or eliminate exposure. No glacier travel. Choose these trips when avalanche danger is Considerable or higher.

1. Aiken Lava Bed
2. Alpental To Source Lake
3. Amabilis Mountain
4. Artist's Point
5. Clara Lake
6. Hidden Valley Snoqualmie Pass
7. Hyak Nordic Trails
8. Diamond Head Road Ski
9. Diamond Head Trees
10. Earl Peak Approach via Bean Creek ( Before Climbing To Earl Pass )
11. Heather Ridge To Skyline Lake
12. Icicle Ridge
13. Marble Mountain
14. Merritt Lake
15. Mt. Angeles
16. Narada Falls To Reflection Lakes ( Avoiding the obvious avalanche slope near the parking lot. )
17. Narada Falls To Paradise
18. Olympic National Park Lodge Run
19. Olympic National Park Toilet Bowl
20. Olympic National Park Waterhole Trail
21. Olympic National Park Obstruction Point Ridgeline Tour
22. Olympic Hot Springs
23. Paradise to Glacier Vista
24. Silver Basin Flats ( No travel on steep, open slopes around the basin. )
25. Stetattle Ridge

Challenging
Exposure to well defined avalanche paths, starting zones or terrain traps; options exist to reduce or eliminate exposure with careful route-finding. Glacier travel is straightforward but crevasse hazards may exist. Choose these trips when avalanche danger is moderate.

1. Alpental To Ridge Above Snow Lake
2. Cement Basin
3. Castle / Pinnacle Saddle
4. Crystal Lake Basin Forested Slopes
5. Diamond Head Chutes
6. Eagle Mountain
7. Earl Peak Approach via Bean Creek, Including Uphill To Earl Pass
8. Goat Rocks To Treeline
9. Governor's Ridge
10. Heather Ridge Backside
11. Heather Ridge Moonlight Bowl
12. Hurricane Ridge
13. Jim Hill Mountain
14. Jove Peak Approach
15. Jove Peak South Face Lower Slopes
16. Kendall Ridge
17. Lake Stuart
18. Lichtenburg Mountain North Side
19. Marmot Pass, To Treeline
20. Mazama Back Bowls
21. Mazama Ridge Ski Slopes
22. Mission Peak
23. Mt. Catherine
24. Mt. Margaret
25. Mt. Roosevelt
26. Mt. Tamanos
27. Naches Peak
28. Narada Falls to Reflection Lakes ( travel up or down the obvious avalanche slope ).
29. Norse Peak
30. Paradise To Cowlitz Rocks
31. Paradise to Panorama Point or McClure Rock
32. Paradise To Stevens Canyon Via Road
33. Peak 7828 approach only.
34. Phantom Trees ( Up to 600 vertical feet / 200 vertical metres below summit. )
35. Pickhandle Basin
36. Skyline Ridge
37. Silver Basin Lower Slopes ( up to the party knoll )
38. Tunnel Creek ( South side of Cowboy Mountain, Stevens Pass ).
39. Wedge Mountain, Travel Confined To Ridges, Forested Slopes
40. Yakima Peak
41. Yodelin Trees

Complex
Exposure to multiple overlapping avalanche paths or large expanses of steep, open terrain; multiple avalanche starting zones and terrain traps below; minimal options to reduce exposure. Complicated glacier travel with extensive crevasse bands or icefalls. Choose these trips when avalanche danger is moderate or low.

1. Alaska Mountain
2. Bacon Peak
3. Big Slide Peak Summit & North Face
4. Burroughs Mountain
5. Butter Creek Drainage
6. Boston Basin
7. Camp Muir to Nisqually Bridge
8. Cannon Mountain Northwest Face via Avalanche Path and Central Colouir.
9. Cashmere Mountain Summit
10. Cashmere Mountain Traverse
11. Chair Peak Circumnavigation
12. Chair Peak South Basin
13. Chickamin Peak
14. Clark Mountain
15. Colchuck Peak
16. Colfax Peak
17. Cowlitz Chimneys
18. Crystal Lake Basin Open Slopes
19. Crystal Mountain To Chinook Pass
20. Cutthroat Pass
21. Cutthroat Ridge Descents
22. Dome Peak
23. Dragontail Peak
24. Earl Peak Southwest Face
25. Earl Peak Southeast Face
26. Earl Peak North Bowls
27. Eightmile Mountain
28. Eldorado Peak
29. Forbidden Peak
30. Fuhrer Finger
31. Glacier Peak
32. Goat Island Mountain
33. Goat Pass ( Mt. Stuart Area )
34. Goat Rocks Alpine
35. Grindstone Mountain
36. Heliotrope Ridge
37. Hidden Lakes Peak
38. Horseshoe Lake
39. Jack Ridge
40. Jove Peak South Face From Summit
41. Lichtenburg Mountain South Side
42. Lichtenburg Mountain West Side
43. Lichtenburg Mountain Summit
44. Lundin Peak
45. Marmot Pass, To Saddle
46. Mt. Adams
47. Mt. Baker Summit
48. Mt. Buckner
49. Mt. Howard Summit
50. Mt. Olympus
51. Mt. Mastiff Summit
52. Mt. Maude
53. Mt. Rainier Carbon Glacier
54. Mt. Rainier Sunset Amphitheatre
55. Mt. Rainier Liberty Ridge
56. Mt. Rainier Summit
57. Mt. Rainier Glacier Basin
58. Mt. Rainier Steamboat Prow
59. Mt. Saint Helens
60. Mt. Snoqualmie To Summit
61. Mt. Ross to Davis Peak Traverse
62. Mt. Shuksan
63. Mt. Stuart
64. Mt. Stuart Sherpa Glacier
65. Mt. Terror
66. Mt. Triumph
67. Olympic National Park Klahane Ridge
68. Paradise to Camp Muir
69. Peak 7828 To Summit
70. Ptarmigan Traverse
71. Pyramid Peak
72. Red Mountain
73. Reflection Lakes To Castle Peak
74. Reflection Lakes To Pinnacle Peak
75. Rock-Howard-Mastiff Mountain Traverse
76. Rock Mountain Summit
77. Ruby Mountain
78. Sahale Arm
79. Sarvant Glaciers
80. Silver Basin Upper Slopes ( to ridgeline or summit of Silver King )
81. Silver Star Mountain
82. Sinister Peak
83. Skidgravel Peak
84. Slot Couloir
85. Sylvester Lake
86. Tatoosh Range Traverse
87. Table Mountain
88. Three Fingers Mountain
89. Tower Mountain Northeast Couloir
90. Unicorn Peak
91. Union Creek
92. Van Trump Park
93. Vesper Peak
94. Wedge Mountain, ( Any Travel On East Face )
95. Whitehorse Mountain

Credits

• These ratings use the ATES technical model, a product of ParksCanada and the Canadian Avalanche Centre.
• Ratings were constructed with the help and guidance of participants on http://www.turns-all-year.com/.

Flashlights & Explosions

I don't know what more to ask for, I was given just one wish—Royksopp

I have been writing about avalanches for five years now, and I've done a respectable amount of professional work, all pro bono. Part of that work involves reviewing accident reports for publication, some of it involves avalanche education curriculum, and I do a bit of work involving computer analysis of various things. Every now and again I answer a question from a friend or relative of someone who was killed or injured in an avalanche.

There's something I've noticed that other professionals have noticed as well: the mountains change, the names of the people change, but by and large the accidents are carbon copies of each other. If you've read my blog for long enough, you'll notice that I'm always looking for patterns in piles of data. This is mostly simple process: I'll review literature, with a computer if I have to ( for word counts and semantic analysis ), and I'll ask questions. When all is said and done, I'll think about it, sometimes for a long time, and then I'll arrive at a conclusion. With luck, this conclusion may be useful to others as well.

People have been wondering for a long time if avalanche education makes you more likely to get involved in an accident, and while I don't have a particularly scientific answer to that question, I think it's much fairer to say that the education and training are blamed because they're such easy targets. It's just like sex education ... I mean sex education just teaches teenagers how to have sex, right? So if we stop educating teenagers about sex, the problem will go away. I'm not sure about your politics, but I refuse to let my politics get in the way of my common sense.

In reality, recreational backcountry skiers who are involved in accidents often fail at the most basic of tasks: they choose terrain that is entirely inappropriate for current conditions. Here are some of my ( redacted / additional ) comments for an accident review in which I participated over the past few days.

• It takes REAL skill and discipline to get the basics right again and again and again.
• ( You know why? Because the basics are repetitive and dull and pretty fucking boring! )
• Learning to rigorously apply basics is the heart of skill. Knowing how to do something is not the same as knowing how to do something the right way, but true mastery starts with the basics. If you don't have the basics down, then you're just an amateur, even though it's pretty easy to fool yourself for a long time.
• But, if you get the basics wrong, pretty much everything else is wrong too, and your knowledge and experience stand a good chance of making things worse. Yeah, knowledge and experience could help... or they might push you closer to the edge. That's really what happens if you get in the habit of ignoring the basics... pretty soon you'll be ignoring more important stuff too.
• The importance of getting the basics right is well-known in most domains.
• Everything else is just damage control and/or covering your ass.

The first item is really important. You have to get the basics exactly right, and I don't think you should consider yourself a skillful backcountry skier if you don't know the basics or can't be bothered to apply them. If you skimp on the basics, then everything else is just luck or damage control.

We all know that luck runs out, and damage control ... is for amateurs.

Finally, Snow

Here in Seattle we're getting rain and cold, but up in the mountains, it's snowing like crazy.

It can't have escaped most backcountry skiing enthusiasts that dangerous avalanche conditions have been widespread throughout most of Western North America this winter, culminating in 9 deaths in the past 10 days. I don't think this is a matter of education. For starters, if you like free education, there are numerous pages on this blog devoted to terrain, weather, and snowpack, along with musings about the psychology of backcountry safety. There are even free exams.

Anyway, I have been thinking about the recent tragedies, and reading threads on TGR, and wondering what I can add, if anything. I think my contribution will be the following quote, which is attributed to Ian Percy:

• We judge others by their behavior. We judge ourselves by our intentions.

I'm sure that none of the persons injured or killed in avalanches this year meant to go out and be killed. I'm sure their ski partners were not planning on participating in a backcountry outing that was going to end with a serious injury or fatality.

But this isn't enough. It's so easy to head out into the backcountry and judge ourselves by our intentions, but our intentions are not always as important as our actions. We all have mental pictures of ourselves, sometimes moment-by-moment, and it's incredibly important to make sure that our mental picture ( our intentions ) aligns with our actions when we're making decisions that involve risk.

So, if you're skiing in Western North America, now is probably a very good time to start judging yourself by your actions.

I know I am.